1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a container and method for measuring the absorption and displacement of a fluid by a material.
2. Description of Related Art
Note that where the following discussion refers to a number of publications by author(s) and year of publication, due to recent publication dates certain publications are not to be considered as prior art vis-a-vis the present invention. Discussion of such publications herein is given for more complete background and is not to be construed as an admission that such publications are prior art for patentability determination purposes.
Various types of laboratory equipment are known comprising vessels and graduated cylinders for the measurement of fluids. For example, there exist columns with graduation marks (i.e., marked with degrees of measurement), and there are flasks with marks in the main body of the flask for approximating the volume of fluid in the flask. Also, equipment exists that is used to measure a material's amount or rate of absorption of a liquid. There are no containers or vessels, however, that are designed to measure a material's absorption and displacement of a liquid using graduated markings as a method has not been developed heretofore utilizing a vessel for such purposes. As such, there has been no teaching for a flask or other vessel suitable for carrying out the methodology described in the present invention particularly as such a vessel having a neck with graduated markings would constitute an unnecessarily expensive development unless a need for such an apparatus arose as a result of the methodology introduced herein.
Thus, there is a need for economically and accurately measuring the absorption and displacement of a fluid by a material using a vessel developed for such a purpose as described herein.